The tour of redemption for the Oregon men’s basketball team rolls on.
Its latest stop this past Sunday resulted in the Ducks’ first ever sweep of the Arizona schools, including a 79-77 victory against then-No. 10 Arizona. After defeating then-No. 1 UCLA last Saturday, the victory against the Wildcats marks the first time Oregon has beaten two top-10 ranked teams in the same season since beating UCLA and Washington in 1969-70.
Sunday’s game typifies the type of season it has been so far for Oregon.
Consider: Oregon was facing a top-10 team that had won 13 of 14 games and hadn’t lost at the McKale Center this season. Plus, that’s a venue the Ducks hadn’t won at since 2001-02.
And when you consider Oregon’s last trip to Arizona – when the Ducks blew a late five-point lead and point guard Aaron Brooks traveled while attempting the game winner in a 70-68 loss – it’s easy to see just how far these Ducks have come.
That loss at Arizona was Oregon’s eighth defeat by seven points or fewer. The Ducks had 11 of those losses last season and eight were by three points or fewer.
On Sunday against the Wildcats, Brooks redeemed himself with his second consecutive game-winner of this season and Oregon won its sixth game by seven points or fewer.
My, how things have changed.
Maybe when you consider what this team has suffered through the past two seasons – all the disappointment, the heartbreaking losses, the unmet expectations and the grilling this coaching staff took – the team is actually better off because of it.
“The adversity toughened us and strengthened us and they needed to go through the adversity,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said, pointing to Washington as a prime example of a young team with hype that is struggling. “We were really beat up last year, but to their credit, they never gave up.”
There are so many factors one can attribute to the vast improvement this season. There’s that Bahamas trip the Ducks took in the summer. There’s the rededication to conditioning and the hours spent on the track at historic Hayward Field. There’s the vast improvement of Bryce Taylor, Maarty Leunen, and that entire fantastic junior class as well as the added depth resulting from a pair of key freshmen.
But mostly, there’s the maturation process of Brooks, the senior point guard turned father in the offseason who is now the unquestioned leader of this team and one of the most clutch players in the country.
He personally epitomizes the turnaround of this Oregon team.
His career up to this point was marred by critical errors late in games and head-scratching decisions. He broke his hand after punching the basket support at UCLA two years ago. Then he sucker punched Washington’s Ryan Appleby in last season’s Pacific-10 Conference tournament.
But right now, he is second in the Pac-10 in scoring at 18.2 points per game and his Ducks, at 16-1, are eyeing for even more redemption when Stanford and Cal visit this week – two teams that swept Oregon last season. Brooks experienced particular frustration against the Cardinal when he missed clutch free throws at home and had to be restrained after he thought he was fouled on a game-tying attempt as time expired in the Ducks’ 64-62 loss on the road at Stanford.
So this season has been about correcting all that went wrong the last few years, not only for Brooks, but for the entire team.
Georgetown? Check. Portland and Portland State? Check. A marquee home victory? Check. Road victories in hostile environments? Check.
Now the Ducks have a sparkling No. 9 ranking, their highest since that magical Elite Eight run in 2001-02 and suddenly that 15-18 record last season seems like such a distant memory.
Only time will tell what’s next for these Ducks.
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